I've always heard you say that Kamigawa block rated poorly in market research. I don't doubt that the numbers were down, but I wonder if that's really a statement on the block itself or if it was just Kamigawa paying for the sins of Affinity. First, Standard with Affinity was miserable and drove people away from the game. Second, those who didn't quit the game still had lower confidence in WotC due to so many overpowered Mirrodin cards needing bans. Finally, Kamigawa itself had lots of niche or just underpowered cards that couldn't hang in Standard with the rest of the Mirrodin. Any of these would have made a huge impact on the success of Kamigawa block, let alone all three. Did market research at the time account for these external factors?

Yes.

When/if: a single set split into two draftable packs. There is some overlap (land cycles, equipment, colorless artifacts, etc) but one pack is Team X (Bolas let's say) which is 3 different archetypes in his colors and the other packs are Team Y (Ugin let's say) which are 3 archetypes in colorless, white, black. All the cards together make a single set, but you would draft Ugin packs with Ugin packs, and then only play against players who drafted Bolas packs.

We did this in Mirrodin Besieged. The set was split in Mirran and Phyrexian, and you chose which side to play when you played in the prerelease.

"Both Rath and Mirrodin were made, neither too long before they first appeared." While true, by the time players got to these places, there were already defined factions and beliefs and lore. What they were asking for is more of a world before those things. The world is so fresh that factions haven't formed, beliefs are still being defined and lore isn't any deeper than 'yesterday we survived' and such. A truly new and still primal world.

A lack of definition does not tend to lead to a good Magic world.

Has there ever been an “it was all a dream” set, as in a set that only existed in a dream you had and isn’t actually real. And if so, what do you remember about it?

I designed the entwine mechanic in a dream. I’d been trying to make a mechanic that fit Mirrodin and was thinking a lot about it. I went to slept and dreamed it. I then excitedly woke up and wrote it down.

In my view, Magic excelled at consistency for many years. You surely understood this consistency - you spent a decade answering questions on this blog in which you laid out where the lines were. Mechs were out. Guns were out. Space opera was out. Mirrodin was "as science-fiction as we'll get". You went as far as to respond to a question asking for more sci-fi with, "If you stretch your identity too far, you start losing it."I understand that you and Wizards have in the last few years changed your minds, and decided to eschew consistency in favor of variety. But certainly you can acknowledge that this *is* a fundamental change, and that Magic *was* good at consistency?

You act as if my line was constant. It wasn’t. I didn’t have a hard line for twenty years that I then one day just changed. It’s been continually moving for almost thirty years.I’m the first to admit that Magic has grown in ways I didn’t anticipate, but when it did, I adapted. The game is capable of a lot more variety than I thought was possible.My current thought (evolved from years of working on the game) is that the variety is a strength of the game. Magic, at its core, is about customizability. Each person can make the game what they want it to be. The more options, the more flexibility, the more each person can find what they love in the game.Note consistency is important. There are a lot of mechanical elements (rules, color pie, templating, etc.) that need to have structure to them, so that the game continues to play similarly, but the creative elements are much more adaptable.

to add to the feedback pile on duskmournthe concept and flavor of the plane are incredible. for me, I think it’s the coolest one since mirrodin.y I really like the horror-based technology, and the whole rich vein of horror it taps into. the ghostbuster-type equipment the survivors have feels a lot more jarring as an initial impression; they seem a bit more like something out of sci-fi than horror.I disliked the non-technological stuff, like the sneakers and gym rooms, at least for now. I think they’re a bit too much for my personal sensibility of what “fits” magic. That said, still very excited for duskmourn!

Thanks for the input.

What was the most stressful point in your career?

The design for Scars of Mirrodin was my most stressful point in my career.

Was arcbound ravanger and those other cards during mirrodin standard banned For power level reasons or because it wasn't fun?

Both.

Why didn't we see any Phyrexianized version of Arcbound creatures?

Scars of Mirrodin block used -1/-1 counters and Arcbound creatures require +1/+1 counters.

I just wanted to share how Magic has helped me maintain a kind of connection with my late father. When I introduced him to the game, I got him the Affinity preconstructed deck from Mirrodin. I still have the deck exactly as he left it. When playing with/against that deck, it almost feels like I’m playing with him again.

Thanks for sharing your story.